Here is my feedback following a trip with the local agency Epic Uganda Vacation as well as my feedback on the lodges and my itinerary. Please read to the end.... read more />
Every year, I travel with my dad. Not living in the same country, we meet somewhere in the world for an average vacation of 8-12 days.
This year, we chose Uganda, from February 14 to 23.
I chose Epic Uganda Vacation and talked with them to put together an itinerary that met our expectations.
3 weeks after paying for half of the trip, the agency told me that 3 of the lodges I had selected were finally fully booked. At the time, although disappointed, I found new lodges that we liked and was able to confirm these with the agency. After having been able to check the tourist influx in Uganda, I doubt today that no lodge was really full. First disappointment.
Having to work every day for about an hour, I asked the agency for confirmation several times that internet access would be possible on our itinerary. They assured me that was the case. And… that was not the case at all. The lodges generally have a router at the restaurant but these only work very slightly. I bought a sim card with internet data, but without 4G (or very little) during our itinerary, it was not useful.
The agency also told me that they had internet at all times in the vehicle. The router had an autonomy of about 30 minutes in the car and had to be recharged on mains plug after that (thus completely useless during road transfers of several hours).
If the agency had been honest with me, I could have managed not to work during this period, but that was not the case. Second disappointment.
Moses, our guide, supposed to be fluent in English but we had a hard time understanding him. Third disappointment.
My father arrived in Entebbe on February 14th in the early afternoon and I in the late evening.
Our departures were scheduled as such: my father had to leave at 3 pm on February 23th (and be at the airport by 1 pm at the latest) and my flight was leaving at 11pm on February 23th (so I had to be at the airport by 9pm).
ENTEBBE
We spent the first night after arriving at the Airport GuestHouse hotel.
Very well located (close to the airport), quiet, spacious and very pretty rooms. The service is pleasant and the food ok.
MURCHISON
The next morning we drove to Murchison with a stop at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary. The walk is pleasant and the park well maintained. The proximity to the rhinos is original, impressive and is a very good experience.
Arriving in Murchison, we settled in at the Twiga Safari Lodge.
The rooms are spacious, clean and the view right at the foot of the Nile is splendid. The service is very good, the food excellent.
The next day's program was to take us to the base of Murchison Falls, by boat cruise and then up the falls to see them from above.
We finally stopped more than a kilometer from the falls for a short minute, after 2 hours of boating and returned to the starting point.
Explaining this disappointment to our guide, he finally took us to the top of the falls.
The Nile is breathtaking, powerful, the view is magnificent. This place is not to be missed under any circumstances.
KIBALE
Depart for Kibale with a stop at 'Amabere Ga Nyinamwiru. A stop with a visit to the caves and the wonderful waterfall.
Arrived at Kibale, we settle in at Turaco Treetops. Spacious, magnificent rooms, in the middle of the forest, with a breathtaking view. Very good service, good food.
The next morning, we leave for the chimpanzees trekking. An experience to live absolutely, which is indescribable. We were lucky enough to be able to find the family very quickly, and to observe them on the ground, in the trees, eating, playing, preening, …
Following this magnificent experience, we did the Bigodi Wetland nature walk, which I also recommend. The different village houses, the tasting of banana beer or banana gin, and the walk in the swamp allow us to discover this ecosite which is absolutely splendid.
QUEEN ELIZABETH NATIONAL PARK
Transfer to Queen Elizabeth for a day of game drive and installation at Pumba Safari Cottages. A hotel well below the range we had paid for. A new disappointment. The view is beautiful, the bed comfortable, but the room is tiny. The service is very bad and the food too.
The next day, we drove on the way to the Ishasha sector to continue our game drives and hope to find the trees climbing lions (bad luck, we did not find them). Installation at the Topi Lodge. Beautiful rooms, impeccable service, very good food.
In general, the landscapes of Queen Elizabeth NP are splendid, but if you are used to safari in Kenya or Tanzania, the fauna is poor.
BWINDI IMPENETRABLE NATIONAL PARK
After breakfast, direction Bwindi by a catastrophic road. Off the tracks, the road to access Bwindi is a mountain road with a huge gap on the side, huge crevasses, significant road insecurity (and yet I have traveled before in a lot of countries where the roads were neither finished nor started).
Installation at Bweza Gorilla Lodge, which is one of the most beautiful lodges I have had the opportunity to see. The rooms are spacious, splendid and the view breathtaking. The food is good and the service is great.
The next morning, departure for the Gorilla Trekking. We hiked about 6 hours, including one with the gorillas. The forest is aptly named impenetrable. A good physical condition is necessary to enjoy this trek but seeing a silverback is a reward that has to be earned. The flora of this forest is also a splendor.
We loved meeting the gorillas and observing them.
Unfortunately, unlike the trek with the chimpanzees where THEY were our guides, the rangers disturbed the gorillas a lot during this “hunt”. By dint of wanting to please the tourist by removing the branches behind which the gorillas settled (including a female with her three-week-old baby), one of them must have come to get angry and hit the ground in front of a ranger.
I think despite everything that it is an experience to live, hoping that our case was isolated and that most guides and rangers are more respectful.
We leaved the forest with wet feet (you have to walk in streams, in the mud, …) and clothes full of mud (we fell a lot ah ah).
BEGINNING OF BIG PROBLEMS
After our visit with the gorillas, we were supposed to go doing our PCR tests in anticipation of our departures the next day and then reach Lake Bunyonyi for a relaxation before the return route to Entebbe and our respective return flights the day after. This whole part (had to be) had been organized by the agency.
Arrived at the laboratory in Kabale (still being dirty and with wet feet), it is explained to us that I could have my results before my departure the following evening but that my father could not have his before his scheduled departure the following day at 3pm. Big panic!
Our guide tries to negotiate but fails. For more than two hours, we stayed there watching our guide making calls and talk with the lab technician, hardly speaking to us anymore, not keeping us informed of events or what solutions we had. In the meantime, I took my test on the spot since they assured that the results would arrive no later than 4 pm the next day and that I had to be at the airport by 9 pm.
Also, we found a flight for my father that could leave the following evening, which would have allowed the tests to arrive on time. Our guide refused this option and forced us to take the road to Entebbe at that time for an express test there, open 24 hours a day. We fell from the clouds.
We of course had no choice and left for 9 hours of driving, always with wet feet and disgusting clothes, without even going to the lodge which was planned at the lake and which we had paid for, after 6 hours of hiking + hours waiting at the lab.
We arrived at the express laboratory at 4 am, after an extremely dangerous 9-hour drive (trucks driving with full headlights and coming straight at us, for example) where our guide refused to pay the difference between the standard test and the express test at first. He finally accepted full responsibility and paid the difference.
We arrived at the hotel (Airport GuestHouse, the same as on arrival) at 4:45 am and my father received his results at 6 am.
After having slept for 2 hours, we had breakfast and the spirits had calmed down, reassured to know that my father was going to be able to take his flight.
The guide apologized, refunded me the lake lodge we hadn't been to, and seemed sincere in taking responsibility.
I had planned to normally go visit the Mabamba swamp after my father left at the airport, for $100, to be given to the guide. Counting on the sincerity of our guide's apology, I decided to keep this plan and go with him. I asked him to call the lab before leaving for the ferry to make sure my results would be there as planned, between 3 and 4 pm. The lab apparently confirmed.
To get to the peninsula, you have to take a ferry. Count at least half an hour for all cars to board, cyclists and pedestrians (passengers cannot stay in vehicles during boarding and crossing).
The Mabamba swamp is absolutely beautiful and I had the opportunity to see a shoebill there as well as a lot of other birds. Do not hesitate to go there, it is really worth it. And this little canoe safari is really soothing.
At 5 pm, as we head back to the mainland, I asked my guide to call the lab back because my results had still not arrived. From the tone of his voice, I immediately knew there were a problem. After hanging up, he told me that my results are not ready and that they will not be ready until 9:30 pm (I had to be at the airport at 9 pm).
I was then completely panicked, alone in Uganda, and asked him to rush to the ferry to take an express test (the results of which normally arrive in 2 hours). We arrive at the ferry, fortunately there is a place for us. The time of boarding, crossing and road to the hotel, we arrive on site at 7 pm and my guide has still not taken the responsibility to call the express lab. He finally does it, summoned by the manager of the hotel to whom I tell my problems.
The laboratory assistant arrives on site, gives me the express test and my guide refuses to pay it. Exasperated and absolutely wanting to go home, I handed him €100 to pay for my test (he had to go to the bank to change them into shillings, the lab not accepting euros).
So they go together to the bank, him and the laboratory technician, each in its car. Arrived at the bank, the technician gets out of her car, and my guide leaves with my money…………
Despite the warnings of the laboratory, the hotel manager and mine for more than two hours, he will not return. The manager took his license plate number and threatened to call the police.
Fortunately, the laboratory still agreed to do my test, seeing the state I was in and sent me the results. I offered to pay them (so I would have paid for 3 tests in case) but they refused, the fault being entirely that of the guide (and moreover, everyone had seen that I had given him the 100€ for the test – and not to settle the walk at the swamp as he seemed to justify after the threat of the police).
At 9:45 pm, while I was waiting for boarding at the airport, I received a message from the hotel and the laboratory telling me that he had come to apologize for his bad decision, that he had paid the test and wanted to take me to the airport. A few minutes later, he was also texting me apologizing.
CONCLUSION
Uganda is an absolutely beautiful country with splendid landscapes. The encounter with the great apes is an incredible experience.
The country is, I think, the poorest and saddest I have seen and the roads in a catastrophic state and a great danger, especially when there is a void of several hundred meters nearby.
I have always used website as Tripadvisor to choose my local agencies and itineraries, but it seems all the more important to me today after this experience.
I recommend this itinerary if you are in good shape and physical health, if you are adventurous and if you have the right guide/driver.
The country will certainly have changed in a few years and if I had known, I think I would have waited before going there.
Of course, I absolutely DO NOT RECOMMAND Epic Uganda Vacation.
Do not hesitate if you have any questions.
Lisa
I contacted several tour operators but Epic Uganda Vacation came ôut to be my partner for my long waited trip to see gorillas in Uganda Specifically in Bwind N... read more